CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Hugenholtz, C.H.; and Wolfe, D.
Date : 2005.
Title : Morphological development of blowouts on the Canadian Prairies.
Publication : Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Geographer. Tuesday, May 31 to Saturday, to June 4, 2005. University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.
Issue :
Page(s) :
Abstract
This study presents the first long-term investigation into the morphological development of blowouts in a continental setting. Topographic changes have been monitored for a decade in two blowouts in southwestern Saskatchewan using dense arrays of erosion pins. Over the decade both blowouts expanded and more than doubled in volume. Differences in form-flow interactions have caused the larger of the two blowouts to deposit more than a metre of sediment within the deflation basin, and the smaller blowout to erode downward by several metres. The larger blowout has reached a critical depth and can no longer transport sediment out of the deflation basin. Form-flow interactions in the smaller blowout continue to facilitate a positive feedback effect whereby sediment is progressively eroded and evacuated from the blowout. Observations of processes within the blowouts indicate that aspect also plays an important role in their development by creating spatial asymmetries in sediment availability. Although the relative magnitude of sediment transport in the blowouts was weakly correlated to remote meteorological data, the signs of the correlation coefficients indicate that both blowouts responded similarly to the amount of precipitation, the transport capacity of the wind, and transporting winds from a directional wedge between 180º - 330º. Taken altogether, the results from this study highlight the importance of climate and feedback effects in blowout development.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology